


What do you want me to say?

by Schreibmaschine



Series: Archive for my tumblr prompts [11]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Guilt, M/M, newly deviated Nines, self depricating thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:14:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27133723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schreibmaschine/pseuds/Schreibmaschine
Summary: Gavin never asked for a partner. Now he tries his best to drive Nines away, only realising after succeeding what he lost.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Series: Archive for my tumblr prompts [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1954156
Comments: 6
Kudos: 40





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was published on my tumblr @fandom-necromancer!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900

bzzzt……….. bzzzt……….. bzzzt………..  
Gavin groaned but forced himself to ignore the blinking LED of his phone. Some asshole had texted him many times and now even had the audacity to call him. Yes, he knew he was late for work. No, he wouldn’t hurry. He didn’t phcking care and neither did anyone in the precinct. On the contrary. The more time he was gone the less he had the chance to cause trouble. Fowler didn’t give him shit for it as long as he solved his cases and showed up for his minimum working-hours. But it must be someone from work, because except for the pizza delivery no one knew his damned phone number.  
Tina? She wouldn’t call him. She hated talking on the phone as much as he did. Well, Connor had pulled the stunt once and earned a fist to the mechanical gut for it. After that he had learned his lesson.  
Gavin was just as pissed off as he was curious. As there was another call and his phone was in danger of vibrating its way off the nightstand, the Detective rolled over and grabbed it. He looked at the display.

RK900 #313 248 317 -87 is calling…

Gavin frowned. Where the hell had his useless plastic partner gotten his number from? And why would the asshole call him? He waited until the other side ended the call and decided to look at his messages.

8:21 >Detective, you are late.  
9:34 >Normally I wouldn’t inquire your presence at the precinct, but it is needed.  
9:34 >There had been another murder. We are to go to the crime-scene.  
9:40 >Detective, I heard from Connor that you don’t like phone calls and I want to apologize in advance.  
9:41 >Detective, we will be late. Pick up your phone.  
9:45 >Finally, you are reading my messages. Please come to the precinct as soon as possible.

‘Like hell I am’, Gavin muttered to himself and texted: _Go there yourself, you phcking toaster._ The answer came near instantly.

9:46 >I can’t. I’m not allowed to enter a crime-scene without my handler. Unfortunately, that is you.

_I’m not coming to work today. Do what you want, I don’t care._ Gavin was already tired from speaking to the machine and he wasn’t even physically there.

9:47 >If that’s so, I will inform the Captain about the possibly lost evidence due to your laziness.

‘Laziness?!’, Gavin shouted into the empty apartment. He felt tempted to throw his phone against the next wall.

_Listen here you phcking bot, you should think about what you say, else I report to Fowler you are malfunctioning or threatened me. Who do you think they will believe? A normal human or a phcking emotionless killer-robot?_

9:53 >I’m sorry if I offended you, Detective. I thought this tactic would let you act out of spite. Humans tend to do that.  
9:55 >You are the most ambitious person I know, I thought you wouldn’t take it that serious. Please come to the crime scene. I promise you, I only want to investigate the scene, you don’t have to be near me the rest of the day, if that makes you uncomfortable.

_Phcking fine, I’ll come tin-can._

In the end Gavin did hurry. Best to get it over with as fast as possible. He had always loved his job. Well, it was the only thing he got in life, really. Phcking family left him and he left his home to move to Detroit, get as far away as possible from his past. He hadn’t found any friends except for Tina, but he couldn’t manage to regret his decision. He was always caught up in his work, he even took it home with him and soon became one of the best Detectives in Detroit. As he said, he had always loved his job. Until he was partnered up with that phcking tin-can.

Emotionless, logic-driven, walking chemistry lab with super sensors. The thing didn’t even have a name! Gavin cursed under his breath as he hit just another red light. He was tempted to pin the siren to his roof and crash through traffic, but well, there wasn’t really any urgency to justify its use.

Around twenty minutes later he arrived, his plastic partner already standing right before the holographic police tape, the white Cyberlife jacket a beacon for trouble. Phcking hell, Gavin saw red whenever the idiotic robot was in sight. He parked the car and hurried over, walking straight past the android that had opened his mouth to greet him. Obviously taken aback RK900 turned and fell into a short run to keep up with him. As he caught up, Gavin had already begun talking to the officer on sight.

LED a frustrated red RK900 listened to what he had been about to tell the Detective himself. He had collected additional data from just standing there on the sidewalk already and both of them could have worked more efficient. Something he knew the Detective liked. He had thoroughly researched Reed before being partnered up with him and had been relieved to see the man was annoyed by the same thing he was: unnecessary ineffectiveness in solving a case. He had easily pissed off every other partner before because they were slowing him down. He often bent the laws to get some information even faster, although that could get him in trouble quite easily.

RK900 had thought to get along with the Detective being a superior model and giving his human partner the exclusive access to information right away instead of having to wait for lab results and database research. But somehow, he had been wrong. The human ignored him at best and was openly aggressive at worst. He had come late repeatedly, sometimes didn’t come at all or did most of the work at home. RK900 had considered the Detective’s file manipulated until he asked Connor and learned that Gavin’s behaviour had changed only as he arrived.

Sometimes RK900 contemplated asking for a transfer. His main goal was keeping Detroit safe. If he worked somewhere away from the men both of their efficiencies would maximise. But somehow it felt like giving up. He wanted to solve his very own case: Get to the bottom of why the Detective seemed to hate him when he was exactly what the man always wished for in his working career.

Well, it would be another frustrating day, as he observed the Detective storming to the house where the victim was murdered. At least he would be able to get the clues he wanted as he could roam freely. He deliberately let the Detective choose where he wanted to look first and then went into a different room. He had learned the human was more cooperative if allowed his own pace.

It took hours where it should have been half that time, them carefully evading each other instead of helping. RK900 had seen enough and walked outside, waiting for his partner. Maybe he could convince the man to at least share his conclusions.

Not much later he walked out of the house, trying to hurry past him again. But RK900 stepped in his way.  
‘What?’ The android reminded himself to be careful not to anger the Detective anymore.  
‘I just thought we could talk about it. It’s our case after all. Your experience in the field would be of great importance to my evaluation.’  
‘Phck your evaluation, I’ll go home now. I’ll send my report once I’m home.’

Gavin took a step to the side, but RK900’s patience had run out. He could always ask for a transfer if the situation escalated and there was no way he would continue working like this. He blocked the path again, his scanners warning him that the human’s condition was dangerously close to him losing it.  
‘Move, android.’ It was pressed between his teeth, anger barely contained. He would explode any minute now and RK900 sighed, taking a step back to show his will to cooperate, but not enough to back down from his position. The human clenched his fists and shouldered past him. It must hurt the Detective more than the android – he was basically ramming into a doorpost.

‘Just what do you want me to say, Detective?’, he shouted after the human, alerting the whole street that shit was about to hit the fan. Gavin’s temper wasn’t easily fought down once it became unleashed, especially in public.  
‘What should I say so that you will work with me? I’m not asking for much. I’m not asking for trust. I’m not asking for friendship. I’m not hoping to accompany you to your bar-nights or talk with you about the weekend. I’m just looking for a functioning work environment and you make it extremely difficult to maintain that.’  
The man had stopped a few steps away from his car. Well, he hadn’t ignored him this time, but that wasn’t really a good thing.  
‘I’m willing to compromise, Detective. I’m willing to endure your degrading nicknames, I’m willing to put up with your attitude. I just don’t want to be ignored. I am just as competent as you are and I see my and your abilities wasted if we continue like this. I will do anything you want if it will finally end this situation.’

The human shook for a moment, then unclenched his hands and let his shoulders fall. RK900 focused only on the human. Maybe that had done the trick? The Detective had always been tense around him, on edge. This just looked… tired.  
‘You will do anything?’  
‘Yes.’  
‘Then phck off RK900. I never needed a partner, I never asked for one. Just go and let me be alone.’ The human walked over to his car and unlocked the door. ‘Will be better for both of us’, he added mumbling to himself, but the android picked it up.

Gavin sat down in his car and drove off. His phone buzzed two times while he drove, but he ignored it until he was parked in the parking lot of his apartment complex.

15:12 >I’m sorry I couldn’t live up to your expectations, Detective. I decided to be your partner on my own, you know. I searched the files of every police officer in Detroit and you were the most interesting, competent and worthwhile find of mine. I don’t know what I did to turn you away, but I regret not having the chance to get to know you better.  
15:13 >I will respect your wishes and ask Fowler for a transfer.  
15:13 >I wish you best of luck in the future and hope you’ll find peace from whatever it is that pushes you into isolation like this.  
15:14 >RK900 #313 248 317 -87


	2. Part 2

‘Just what on earth do you think you are doing, Reed?!’ Gavin had exactly twenty minutes of peace after entering the precinct the next day. Then Hank had stormed over like a rabid dog, beating his hands down on the desk and staring at him with a fury hot enough to melt steel.  
‘I’m drinking my coffee.’ Gavin kept his outer appearance of being unphased by the angry lieutenant. His mind felt numb ever since he read that messages in the parking lot yesterday. He hated this feeling. It was far easier to be angry, to feel awful, to lash out or to regret. This numbness was rare for Gavin, who had always felt strong emotions and didn’t hide them like all the others – but not unfamiliar. No, he knew this numbness like a brother. It was a sign of him having phcked up again.

‘What the hell did you do to him?’  
‘Cut it down, daddy overprotective. I have not a clue what you are talking about.’  
‘Oh, you don’t?’ Hank lifted his body out of Gavin’s personal space to walk over to the adjacent desk and lean on the chair. RK900’s chair. RK900’s _empty_ chair. ‘I thought you were a detective. Spot the phcking difference in the room!’  
‘I can see officer Person is slacking off again.’ Gavin refused to let the man pull him out of his cloud of indifference. He didn’t know what would happen would he switch on his emotions again.  
‘You can see-‘ Hank turned around to look at the man playing on his phone, only visible due to RK900’s vacant desk, because….

Because Nines was gone. Gavin had managed to burn through another partner and was sure to never get one assigned again. He should be happy about this. Why was he not happy about being alone again?

‘Okay you fucking asshole, I’m not doing this for you, I’m doing this for Nines, just so you know. But you better get up, follow me outside and take a smoke break. Because I would rather not discuss this in public unless you force me to.’  
‘I’m not going anywhere.’  
Hank grabbed him by the coat-tail and hissed: ‘You are taking a smoke break right now, or I’ll beat you up here and now in front of everyone and pull your unconscious body outside. I don’t care.’  
Gavin looked at the Lieutenant, maybe for the first time really seeing the other since this conversation started. It had been long since he last saw the man this angry. It had been shortly after Anderson’s child died, and he drunkenly had started a fight with some criminal in the interrogation room. But he was sober now. He was simply angry as fuck. Knowing in what condition the perp had ended up, Gavin rose from his desk and followed the Lieutenant outside.

It took him by surprise that the man shoved him against a wall as soon as the door fell shut. ‘You are an asshole Reed. A fucking asshole. It would need a new word to describe just how much of an asshole you are.’  
‘Okay, cut the bullshit, I know what I am. Just tell me what I did wrong apparently.’  
‘Apparently? Apparently? I tell you what you did: You let a newly deviated android lose faith!’  
Gavin didn’t want to laugh at that but couldn’t stop it. ‘Hank. It’s just. A phcking. Machine! I know you project all kinda stuff into them, but it is a robot. Wiring and programs. They cannot have _faith_.’  
‘Do you really think that Reed? Do you really think that after working with Nines? God, did you even know him? Are you that blind?’  
‘Enlighten me, smartass.’

‘He chose to be your partner, you know that?’  
‘Yeah I know!’, Gavin punched back hoping to mask the fact he had learned it only yesterday.  
‘You know. And do you know why?’  
Gavin stayed silent, causing Hank to shake him and shove him against the wall again. ‘Do you know why?’  
‘No. Why should I?’  
‘Because he wanted to!’, Hank ignored his question. ‘Because he was fascinated from what he read about you!’  
Again Gavin stayed quiet in defeat, letting the Lieutenant explain. Maybe somewhere inside he did care or at least was interested in why anyone would deem him anything else but a failure, let alone _fascinating.  
_‘Markus contacted us as Jericho raided the Cyberlife tower in search for any androids left in their shipping halls. What they didn’t expect was a second Connor – a prototype of a RK900 series. They should have become soldiers or police officers for the more gun-heavy occasions. Basically, a walking, talking shield for humans. And a central piece in Amanda’s plan taking over the revolution.’  
‘Why are you telling me this, Hank, it’s not like-‘  
‘Will you shut up already! Markus contacted me about the unit, and I took him in. Connor thinks of him as a brother and he is family. But he was restless. He wasn’t able to just live idling in our home. If he was sitting on the couch watching TV, even I could see his stress levels rising. Once, he petted Sumo and started overheating, desperately asking for a task. I jokingly told him to count the dog’s hairs and in the middle of the night he came into the bedroom with an actual number! He was clearly searching for a purpose, for something to occupy him and keep him from dying of boredom. He asked what we were working on. As he learned of Detective work, he was immediately caught on the idea. But he didn’t feel it was right to simply waltz in. He did the tests, Reed. He completed the human tests, graduated. Well, he rushed through it in a few months, but out of him and Connor he really deserves the title officially. In all that time he searched for someone his calibre. Someone he could work with and someone he could learn a few things from. Someone he might find his purpose in. It took him longer to find a partner than completing his training at the academy. And who he ended up with is you, Reed. He thought you would be that ideal partner for him. We tried to talk him out of it, expecting something like this to happen. We warned him of you, Gavin. And you know? He defended you. He stood up for you to the point we actually had a fight at home over this. But he stayed stubborn and simply did what he wanted to.’

Hank had calmed down a bit and let go of Gavin’s clothes. ‘He looked up to you, Gavin. He saw something in you – god knows what. You telling him to leave… Can you imagine what that meant to him?’  
Gavin had to process all he just heard. He had the explanation, but he still couldn’t understand how out of all police officers in Detroit, hell, out of all humans in Detroit anyone would chose him despite knowing who he was.  
‘Why did you chose to hate him, Reed?’ Hank had backed down and Gavin could see this bullshit about family had been the truth. The big drunkard had taken Connor in, yes, but he was concerned about Nines, too. Gavin was averted to the whole family-stuff, maybe because of his own phcked-up past.  
‘Is it because he’s an android? Did he do anything to you? Is it just your asshole-attitude or is there any reason he has given you?’

‘Shut up.’ Gavin had been pulled to the edge of his numbness and he knew if he decided to let his emotions run free, he would succumb right there on the sidewalk. Maybe kill Hank afterwards and then find the tin-can and trash it before regretting it afterwards. Not a good future. So, he fought them down again, hoping to maintain the situation until he was home. ‘As if I care for a phcking machine.’ But his tone slipped, the truth seeping out. He felt phcking guilty. Ever since he read these messages. Now that he knew more, it amplified it. He felt terrible and over a goddamn android! That made it even worse. ‘I’ll go home. Don’t you phcking touch me ever again!’

He had walked straight through the bullpen and made his way to the door, ignoring anyone who might try talking to him. Mechanically he sat down in the car and looked at his phone, the messages still open.  
_I’m sorry I couldn’t live up to your expectations.  
You were the most interesting, competent and worthwhile option.  
I don’t know what I did to turn you away.  
I regret not having the chance to get to know you better.  
Best of luck.  
_‘Phck!’ There were the emotions again. Why couldn’t he be happy about the damn robot leaving? It was all he ever wished for since the plastic prick entered the precinct. And now he was close to tears in his car, still standing in the DPD parking lot. It wasn’t because of the android. God, at least he hoped it wasn’t. It was because he managed to phck up again. Just another evidence that Gavin Reed was a human failure and didn’t manage to make anything work. He didn’t deserve anything if all he did was destroy and phck up. He didn’t-  
Stop. Drive home. Get drunk. Cry your phcking eyes out. Get your shit back together and continue.  
It had worked until now, it would continue to help. Good plan. No, terrible plan, but the only one there was.

Half a bottle later Gavin had broken down on the kitchen table, the messages open on his phone and Hank’s words in his ears. Any amount of alcohol would only make them both angrier and louder. Shit, he wanted to get out of this shitty situation. He could push it all down again and forget it, but he didn’t know how to look Hank in the eye ever again. Or he could apologize. What would bring him nothing but embarrassment. But he was drunk enough to forget about that detail as he grabbed the phone.

 _Hey, tin-csn, O’m sorry._ There was a millisecond of the last sober brain cell hesitating, but all others managed to press send.

23:45 >Detective?

‘Phck.’ Why did he do this? Why was he about to do it again?  
_I’m N asshoel._

23:45 >Detective, are you drunk? You never text me.

_I’m your ducking partner, I do what O want!_

23:46 >Except for Spellchecking apparently. Do you mean it?

_Hell, would I txt you if I don’t? I Hank told me.. I… give me another chance, okay?_

23:47 >I understand correctly: you want me to come back and be your partner, despite me being a ‘tin-can’ and a ‘phcking machine’?

_Yes, you oversized calculator!_

23:47 >Understood, Detective. I’ll ask to be transferred back.  
23:48 >Please get some rest, this can’t be healthy.

‘Yes, I will~’ Gavin got up, somehow staying on wobbly feet and made for his bedroom, before realising that was far too ambitious and opted for the couch instead.

**Author's Note:**

> You can prompt a story like this yourself if you want! Just head over to my tumblr @fandom-necromancer, message me on twitter @Schreibmachin4 or contact me in any way!


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